THE SINISTER GEPHALOPODS 



pieces of their webs like wings, and steer themselves up 

 to and through the surface of the water, sailing through 

 the air for considerable distances. 



The American marine biologist, George F. Arata, 

 Jun., was on board the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

 ship Theodore N, Gill when he made an unusually close 

 observation of a flying squid's "take-off". The squid was 

 only about six inches long, but observational conditions 

 were ideal. The squid was first seen just ahead of the 

 ship. It had just struck the water after a flight, and 

 rested motionless until the ship was only ten feet from 

 it — it then darted to one side, turned swiftly and leaped 

 backwards, sending out a jet of water from its funnel. By 

 this time its fins were fully extended, and its arms 

 bunched together to form a kind of hood. The creature 

 sprang into the air and flew diagonally across the ship's 

 bow for at least fifty feet before making a flat "belly- 

 landing" on the sea's surface. There was no wind what- 

 ever to assist its flight. 



Squids often fall on to ships' decks. On one occasion 

 W. H. Rush was on a ship three hundred miles oflf the 

 coast of Brazil, when a shoal of hundreds of squids flashed 

 out of the sea, rose to a height of fifteen feet and landed 

 on the ship's deck, which was twelve feet above the 

 surface. 



Numbers of the adult cephalopods seem to live (at 

 least during the day-time) some hundreds of feet below 

 the surface of the sea. Compared with the coastal forms 

 or the flying squids, which live partly above the surface, 

 the deep water squids and octopods show a reduction 

 and simplification of their bodies to withstand the enor- 

 mous pressure. In most deep-sea species the muscular 

 systems and ink-sacs may be only weakly developed, or 

 the ink sac may be entirely absent, but in all such 

 creatures there is a corresponding increase in the amount 

 of the gelatinous tissue underneath the skin. 



This gelatinous tissue is a remarkable substance, for it 



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